With their passion, Congolese artists often deplore the lack of funding to develop their art. This difficulty was amplified by the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 health crisis. To meet this need, the youth center of Goma launched the PASART project (Project to support the financial empowerment of the artistic and cultural sector) in seven towns in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Goma, Bukavu, Uvira, Kalemie, Bunia, Kisangani and Isiro.
The project, funded by the ACP-EU CULTURE consortium’s program to create in Central Africa, aims to make cultural structures financially autonomous, by strengthening their professional capacities and promoting access to bank loans.
PASART, which extends over 11 months, will begin with the training of those responsible for cultural centers and other structures in the target towns. Once trained, these managers will be accompanied by incubation structures to help them design bankable projects, to know how to benefit from credit and, above all, how to repay it.
The project will guarantee access to credits through a pledge system for artists and cultural structures without collateral.
For Augustin Mosange, communication officer of the youth center of Goma and PASART, the project opens up great prospects for the Congolese cultural sector. “We want to see cultural centers access the culture industry and promote cultural entrepreneurship. But also, see these cultural centers move towards their empowerment, because it is a serious problem that there is. Most cultural centers live on subsidies, which decrease as the crises multiply. With PASART, we will teach cultural centers to be autonomous.”
Funded to the tune of 133,000 euros, the PASART initiated by the Goma youth center should enable a large number of Congolese artists to develop their creative potential and contribute to the financial empowerment of their sector.